Some seniors living in Salem’s newest and largest affordable housing apartment complex have consistent access to hot water for the first time in over five months.  Maintenance work in recent days restored the service at Mahonia Crossing, which cost $114 million to build – including $42 milli on in state grants – and hosts 313 apartments spread across 18 buildings.At a grand opening event on Oct. 29, developers promised respite for hundreds of low-income seniors, farmworkers and wildfire survivors. Rent starts at $1,159 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.  Several older residents moving into the “senior building” said their water took 40 minutes to get lukewarm, sometimes never warming up. They said the issue only affected their building.  Some complained about a frustrating lack of effort toward fixing it. Kim Gaube, spokeswoman for Guardian Management, said that there have been “intermittent issues” with the hot water system due to a construction defect in an emailed statement to Salem Reporter. She said that residents can reach out to their office with concerns.  “At Guardian, we take issues raised by our residents seriously,” she said.When resident Raeanne Larrabee moved in, she had to heat water on the stove and bring it to the bathroom to wash with. “It’s been a real pain,” said Larrabee in a March 5 interview. “Sometimes you have hot water, sometimes you don’t. Some people have it, some don’t.”Residents said that they had to plan their day around avoiding a cold shower, knowing that their best bet at a bearable temperature came between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. They said they complained repeatedly to managers for Guardian Management at the complex’s front office and felt they were being ignored. Residents then contacted Salem Reporter. Repairs apparently only came after Salem Reporter questioned officials at the Salem Housing Authority on March 3. The entity was one of several project partners and administers federal rent vouchers to 51 units on site, 31 of them housing seniors.Housing Authority spokeswoman Sarah Murray said the agency’s management was unaware of the issue until contacted by Salem Reporter. The agency only provides rental assistance for tenants and has no involvement with property maintenance. Larrabee said she emailed a Salem Housing Authority case manager on Feb. 11 with complaints.Murray told Salem Reporter that the case manager began investigating Larrabee’s concern after the email but had not yet elevated the issue to agency management.“If an issue is found, the level of severity outlines timelines for corrections. Under the rules of a special inspection, if a deficiency is found related to hot water, it must be corrected within 30 days,” Murray said.She said that the inspector was working with Mahonia Crossings property management to identify next steps when Salem Reporter emailed the Salem Housing Authority, which triggered a second investigation.“Once received, it was elevated to the owners of Mahonia Crossings. Once received by the owners, they took the lead on communications with the tenants and oversight of the project directly with the property management on-site,” Murray said.Jena Green, spokeswoman for Community Development Partners who owns the building and hired Guardian for day-to-day management, said in an email that they were first informed of the hot water issues after the Salem Housing Authority reached out on March 4.  “We were surprised to hear of these reports and do not take them lightly,” Green said.  She said that residents submitted four work orders to the property managers about the issue between October and January, which were sent off to engineers and plumbers who made attempts to fix the hot water issue.  “However, it has become clear that these were temporary fixes, and larger system deficiencies were not identified. As a result, the hot water issues persisted, leading to a repeated cycle of reports and responses,” Green said.Green said her company in early March contacted property managers and a general contractor, and inspected hot water sources. She said that the inspections last week “confirmed inconsistencies and inadequacies with hot water temperatures, heat times and pressure.” A contractor, engineer, plumber, property manager and representative from Community Development Partners then inspected the building’s hydronic loop system, which recirculates water throughout the building. The unique system requires a specialist, who came out on March 14, Green said.  Residents said there was a racket of constant repairs and apartment visits last week. As of Thursday, Green said all units should be getting adequate hot water, which will be confirmed through additional inspections. Green said that Guardian Management was expected to tell Community Development Partners about persistent maintenance issues if initial attempts to repair them don’t work.  She said an automatic system will be installed to alert maintenance about water temperature issues. The company also will review the work order process and “conduct a full debrief with property management and reinforce these best practices by reviewing our maintenance escalation and communication protocol.”Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: abbey@salemreporter.com or 503-575-1251. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post After five-month delay, senior residents at Mahonia Crossing get consistent hot water appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less